Nigerian Army troops and a new Nigerian Air Force Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter

NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA
13 February, 2013

(..) Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, while inspecting NAF facilities in Abuja, faulted a report which claimed that the Nigerian Air Force has only one aircraft. He said the force has no fewer than 16 aircraft types that are all being
used for military operations both within and outside the country.

“We have up to 16 aircraft types in Nigeria. If somebody said we have only one aircraft, what of the aircraft that are being used by the Army, are they not aeroplanes? What of the ones flying everywhere chasing Boko Haram members in the country? Are they not aeroplanes? There are some in various stages of repairs. You have the regular maintenance and there is one(Dornier Do 228) that is available for training (at Kaduna) and there are three undergoing 300 and 600 hours inspection and these are inspections that don’t take too long.’’

The air chief said he was satisfied with
what he met on ground as the essence of the tour was to know where to improve on the facilities and how to go about it.

DAILY TRUST reports the air chief as having said that “the Air Force has a total of 16 aircraft types and all of them are serviceable including the C-130 and Alpha jets recently deployed to Mali for peace support operations.” and that the new vision of the air force chief is “to transform the force into a self reliant and highly professional fighting force through the application of innovative technology in fulfillment of national defence and security objectives.”

16 Responses to CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF REFUTES MISCHIEVOUS MEDIA REPORT ON STATE OF THE FLEET; SAYS “WE HAVE 16 DIFFERENT AIRCRAFT TYPES ALOFT”

the CAS himself confirmed what the reporter said. they have just a single donier (do-228) for VIP training. that was the main issue of ‘a single trainer’ that the reporter outlined. there are of course, other jets and turbo prop for varied training (primary training, advance training), however, how many jets have they got for VIP transport training?
NAF has a long way to go in terms of acquisition. their arsenal is still very thin. these planes and helos are not as expensive and their procurement are not as heart stopping as NAF top echelon would want us to believe. sad, air power, cant be rivaled.
we should by now be counting the number of squadrons in NAF and not the few operational air worthy aircraft that re still in front-line service.

Beags, SOS! The CAS has gotten me all confused here! He said “the force has no fewer than 16 aircraft types that are all being used for military operations both within and outside the country” What kind of aircrafts is he talking about? Which ones are chasing Boko Haram members ? Attack helos maybe! Is he telling us that If we sum up the number of refurbished A jets, the L39s, the F7N jets and other airlift planes that we’ll have a total of 16 planes? Or did he mean 16 different categories of aircrafts? I’m confused!!!

I was with an Air Force Personnel at the weekend and he told me that 12 helicopters and two C-130s have been assigned for the Malian operation. He also confirmed that there were 4 Alpha jets in Niger and over 300 personel have been deployed.

and so on. You know the rest. He did not mean 16 aircraft flying – they have a squadron of Agusta A109s and another of Aermacchi MB 339s. That already makes 24 airframes.

We have not heard about the delivery of the nine new Russian helics as yet but right now, what we use for CTCOIN operations are Mi-24V/Mi-35P and Agusta A109 LUH. Those ones I have seen deployed operationally for surveillance and/or attack. The Mil helics do surveillance and attack while I have not yet confirmed the usage of Agusta 109s for attack but they have been seen in Maiduguri and on the Jos Plateau flying recce missions since 2011.

Well, the NAF did say not to long ago that they expect to return three C130 Hercules planes to the sky this February. So two C130s for AFISMA would not be out of order. Two A-Jets have been in Niamey(NAF 452 and NAF 455) while a further two units from the 99 AWS were already planned for deployment.

I also mentioned the fact that one or two G222s, a Dornier Do228 and perhaps a Super Puma would also join the airlift/utility operations.

They plan to deploy a pair of Mi-35s there and those could be backed up by military variant Agusta A109 LUHs for the force multiplier effect. Not to forget the imminent delivery of nine new Russian helicopters and your source might have scored a 70%. I would however guess that the helicopters would number about eight.

The caption which they used to sell their paper, Freeegulf, was “NIGERIAN AIR FORCE HAVE ONLY ONE AIRCRAFT”. That was the caption and I stated so on the day that the report first got published. See ‘backgrounder’

I don’t care if the reporter said that we have half an aircraft operational.

Who is to blame for this erroneous information?

The NAF has been deliberately vague as to what it has accomplished since the return to civillian rule.
NAF rightfully, set out a target of it’s goals at the start of president OBJ’s 1st term. The implementation of these very modest goals have been abysmal. As it is taken almost 16 years to achieve the status quo, even with billions usd at our disposal.

Doziex, you couldn’t have said it better.
It’s disheartening and unbelievable that Nigeria, at this stage of her development and given her role in the sub region cannot boast of a squadron of air worthy Multi role air superiority fighters!

At least MOD/GEJ if the Sukhois are out of your horizon, equip us with the rumored block B or C JF 17s plus 12 Yak 130…haba, is this too much to ask?

If because of short sightedness the above is not plausible, please as a matter of urgency liaise with the Indian govt. and put our Jaguars back in the air within a period of 8 months. Don’t forget the Yaks too.

At some point, I really do hope that the ‘powers that be’ at NAF and those in Abuja will do something about this most vexing issue of lack of equipment. Until someone somewhere in these institutions stands up and begins to aggressively implement a strategic plan (assuming one exists) for air power (looking away from land and sea for a moment), we will continue to clutch at straws.

A handful of Alphas and F7s just don’t cut it IMO. Preparation for conflict is done in peacetime. Even in these not so peaceful times (Arab spring, AQIM, BH, etc), our endless inertia still sees us dragging feet around instead of grabbing what’s hot on the international market. Whilst I’m aware that NAF will be extra careful only to acquire platforms that they have the capability to operate/maintain, surely new capabilities can be acquired alongside new platforms as part and parcel of the deal? Shouldn’t that even be the sweetner to go after – technology transfer (mechanical, electronic, munitions)?

Does government not know that serious procurement is a catalyst to technological development? Weapons manufacturing, aerospace and naval vehicle design, manufacturing and maintenance, etc are all big business the world over. In any capitalist economy (which we are), these things are all handled by the private sector, not government or the military. Its commercial. To get the technology, you no longer have to reinvent the wheel, there are scores of wheel makers who will gladly partner with locals in the manufacturing of ‘wheels’, provided you order a couple of theirs for starters.

Its about time someone came up with a coordinated, coherent, and well thought out plan for the armed forces. One that is linked to national strategic priorities such as internal security, regional capacity, protection of strategic assets (O&G), and technological advancement. Surely, there must be people in power today that can get this right for all of us.